The best move is sometimes the one you make before the problem arrives. Forestall is the word for that — for the wisdom of anticipation, and the power of acting before you have to react.
Turn Over a New Leaf: The Permission to Begin Again
Change is hard. Not the wanting of it — we all want it at some point. The doing of it. ‘Turning over a new leaf’ is an old expression with a surprisingly vivid history, and it holds something most of us need to hear: the beginning is always available. No matter when. No matter why.
Prolix: On the Art of Saying Less to Mean More
Some people take ten minutes to say what could be said in thirty seconds. There’s an elegant word for that — and learning it might make you a sharper, more powerful communicator than you ever expected.
Halcyon: The Word That Turns Memory Into Gold
There’s a word for those chapters of your life that seem to glow when you look back at them — warmer, calmer, more golden than anything since. In this episode, we unwrap halcyon, and ask why the past sometimes feels more alive than the present.
In the Grand Scheme of Things: The View From Far Enough Back
Some phrases offer us a gift disguised as a cliché. ‘In the grand scheme of things’ is one of them — a quiet invitation to zoom out, breathe, and see your situation from a distance that changes everything. This episode is about perspective as a practice, not just a platitude.
Susurrus: The Word That Sounds Exactly Like What It Means
Some words are sounds before they are meanings. Susurrus is one of them — a word so perfectly designed that saying it is almost enough to understand it. In this episode, we explore the world of whispers, rustles, and the quiet language of soft sounds.
Light at the End of the Tunnel: Hope as a Navigation System
When you’re in the middle of something dark and long and difficult, hope isn’t just an emotion — it’s a direction. ‘The light at the end of the tunnel’ is one of the most enduring expressions of human resilience. This episode explores what it really means to keep moving toward something you can barely see.
Erudite: The Beauty of Knowing Things Deeply
There’s a difference between knowing a lot and knowing things well. Erudite describes the second kind — the learning that has depth, breadth, and soul. In this episode, we make the case for genuine scholarship in a world of surface-level information.
Water Under the Bridge: The Art of Letting the Past Move On
Some things hurt us. Some things went wrong. Some things we carry longer than they deserve. ‘Water under the bridge’ is one of the most graceful expressions in English — a small phrase that holds a big act: the willingness to let the past be past. Let’s explore what that actually takes.
Assuage: The Quiet Work of Making Things Better
Some of the most important things we do for each other don’t fix problems — they ease them. Assuage is the word for that gentle, often underrated act of making something a little more bearable.
Recent Posts
A History of Sex as a Business 05 | The Colonial Export: Race, Empire, and the Global Trade
European colonialism didn’t just extract gold, spices, and land from colonized peoples — it also created and exploited systems of sexual commerce that were explicitly organized around race. This episode examines how empire built racialized sex economies across Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
A History of Sex as a Business 04 | Courtesans, Kings, and the Politics of Pleasure
In Renaissance Europe and the Ottoman Empire, certain women leveraged beauty, intelligence, and proximity to power into remarkable — if precarious — social positions. This episode explores the cortigiana onesta, the imperial harem, and the Japanese geisha as case studies in how women navigated systems that simultaneously celebrated and constrained them.
A History of Sex as a Business 03 | The Middle Ages: God, Sin, and Regulation
The medieval Church condemned commercial sex as mortal sin — and then many of the same institutions that preached that message either tolerated or directly profited from licensed brothels. This episode explores the extraordinary contradiction at the heart of medieval sexuality and the economic logic that drove it.
A History of Sex as a Business 02 | Greece, Rome, and the Architecture of Desire
From the intellectual companionship of Athenian hetaerae to the licensed brothels of imperial Rome, this episode examines how two of history’s most influential civilizations built elaborate social and legal structures around the commodification of sex — and who paid the price.
My Life Is Full, Just Not by Your Standards: In Defense of the Quiet, Curious Life
Some people look at a life spent learning, writing, and thinking and see something to pity. Here’s a warm, honest defense of the quiet, curious life — and a look at why the pity says more about the person giving it than the one receiving it.
Contemporary: The Gift and the Responsibility of Right Now
Contemporary means sharing the same time. But it carries something more interesting than a date stamp. In this episode, we explore what it means to be a person of your moment — and what you owe to the time you’re living in.